Catching the lake-beasties

[Storm]

Hey,
So I was about to hunt down those pokemon Team Galactic caught and I then freed and they returned to their lake. Well, so one of them fleed, and the other ones are impossible to catch somehow!
I mean, I use ultra, quick, timer and dusk balls at the right time, i get them with just one pixel of hp left and asleep, and it just wont work.. after a while they don't even stay in their ball for one wiggle..
How did you do it, just go on and try? Or is there something special up, since Palkia and other rare pokemon aren't that hard to catch in D/P, also not in the safaripark..

[Dark Scizor]

It's just Palkia and Dialga that are easy to catch. They have a catch rate of something like 30 to the other legendaries' 3.

Just keep trying, it isn't impossible. And use Great Balls, they're much better (Well, not really, but it's what I use to catch legendaries)

[Silent Dragonfly]

Since the caves are dark you're best off using Dusk Balls.
Use the Poketch's Marking Map to locate Mesprit (and Cresselia when she flies off in the Fullmoon Island scene) and trap it using Mean Look, Block or Shadow Tag ability. Again Dusk Balls work best if you're playing at night (when it's dark) and stick to Ultras otherwise.

Remember the move False Swipe will never KO an opponent, it will always leave at least 1 HP. Use this tactic along with Sleep status to improve your chances as best you can.

[Jeff]

Some other moves that cause a predictable amount of damage: Endeavor brings the opponent's HP down to be the same as yours, obviously won't knock them out and good to use if your HP is low. Super Fang always cuts the opponent's HP in half, Seismic toss, Night shade, Dragon rage, etc. cause a predictable amount of damage and won't critical hit, and of course there's false swipe.

In the end, when it's time to start chucking balls, the best thing to do is keep trying. Catching is all based off of probability, even if you throw pokeballs at a full-health legendary, there is still a chance the ball will catch it. I wouldn't recommend it though, since the chance isn't that good. For Uxie and Azelf, I just weakened them without putting them to sleep and used Ultra balls. They were definitely harder to catch than Dialga, and I had to reset quite a few times, but after a while I got them.

[Storm]

ah, got 'm! well, the two that don't flee. really sometimes you just need to know that something can be done in order to do it.. thanks !